


If It's Enough

by thatoneperson



Series: crossed the stars [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Manipulative Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-09-23 16:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9665681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatoneperson/pseuds/thatoneperson
Summary: Lotor and Lance grow closer while the Paladins struggle to get Shiro back.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was gonna wait to post this until I had the entire fic done, but I figured this could stand alone as a chapter.m I'm about halfway through the next chapter, so it should be out fairly soon~

Lance ignored the stilted dinner conversation, though Allura was trying to carry it with admirable grace. Shiro had been gone for weeks and they still hadn’t quite settled around the empty space he had left. Getting Pidge to stop researching and start eating was a trial and a half at any given moment, and Keith wasn’t much better. He’d been throwing himself into training with the ferocity of someone fighting to forget, while Hunk alternated between helping Pidge and baking enough to feed an army. 

That did make it pretty easy to find food when someone skipped a meal, at least. Lance couldn’t say he’d been dealing with Shiro’s disappearance better than anyone else. He’d taken to holing up in his room and talking with his new friend. Lotor was the only person Lance knew that wasn’t tearing themselves up over the uncertainty of Shiro’s disappearance, which made him the only person Lance could comfortably confide in right now. 

Even Allura and Coran, who were certainly handling Shiro’s disappearance best, were busy dealing with their own grief, on top of trying to keep the rest of the paladins from self-destructing. Saying they were stressed would be something of an understatement. 

Lance picked at the rainbow of alien foods on his plate as Keith tried to be encouraging, again. When not raging against the gladiator, Keith had taken to dealing with Shiro being gone by giving shoddy knockoffs of Shiro’s teamwork speeches. It wasn’t the most irritating thing he’d ever done, but something about it just rubbed Lance the wrong way.

“Thanks for the grub, Hunk,” Lance interrupted, “but I think I’m gonna go enjoy some me time.” He stretched and gave an exaggerated smile. “Maybe spend some time looking out at the stars, who knows.” He casually brushed past a visibly distressed Keith and felt a flare of petty satisfaction. 

He probably should have felt bad about it—deep, deep down he actually might—but getting Keith to shut up about “working together like Shiro would have wanted!” just felt so good. He would have blown up at Keith if he’d listened to that any longer, so he was taking the high road here.

He strode into his room and reached for the Corredev hiding under a pile of his clothing. Really, Lotor was starting to become the high point of his day. He listened to it gently chime its ringtone with barely restrained anticipation. 

“Lance!” Lotor cheered, always so delighted to hear from Lance. “What has been happening in your life today?”

Lance groaned and stretched out on his bed. “Well, Keith is being insufferable as usual, but—!” Lance dove to the side and rummaged under his bed to pull out a dull grey paste in a jar. “I found some aorean oil, so I can finally try out that hair treatment you recommended. I’m thinking I’ll use it later tonight, actually,”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Lotor said with a particularly self-satisfied expression, “I found something I think resembles your sweet granular plant extract. It does make an excellent exfoliant.”

“Sweet gran— Are you talking about sugar?” Lance demanded, leaning towards his Corredev with wide eyes. “Oh man, Hunk would just about cry if we could get sugar. Stress baking is a lot less stress relieving when you have to guesstimate with your basic ingredients.” If anyone on this ship deserved to get a nice gift right now, it was Hunk. Lance wouldn’t deny that helping Hunk bake more Earth-like foods would have some nice fringe benefits for him too, though. 

“Yes,” said Lotor coolly, “I’m sure he would.” Lotor pulled a jar of yellowish sugar up and turned to stare at it speculatively. “Shame that this came from a planet deep within Galra territory. It's not given to outsiders, even very talented pilots.” He looked at the camera out of the corner of his gaze and gave a sly smile. 

“Ah yes,” Lance sighed, falling back onto his bed as with one hand pressed delicately against his brow. “How tragic. If only I had a friend inside the Galra empire to help me, I would be able to enjoy delicious sweets.” Lance stared into the camera with a smile. 

“Yes, if only.” Lotor admired his own Galra clothing with an idle nonchalance. Lance burst into laughter. 

“Seriously though, do you know where I could get some?” Lance pulled himself up from his dramatic recline and leaned against the wall. _Hopefully somewhere I can get to without having to explain why I really want to go_. Lance was really not looking forward to explaining his new Galra friend to everyone else, especially not Allura and Coran. 

Lotor laughed softly. “Not to worry, Lance. It will be a gift from me to you.” 

“I mean, I appreciate that, but you can’t exactly mail it to me” Lance shrugged helplessly.

“You don’t have a permanent base?” Lotor frowned, gently resting his head on his hand. 

“Ah, no,” Lance laughed sheepishly and took a deep breath. “I’ve been meaning to tell you eventually, but, uh, I kind of live on a castle ship. An Altean castle ship. I’m the blue paladin of Voltron.” Lance spread his hands and smiled as memories of destroyed Galra ships flashed behind his eyes. “Surprise?”

“Well,” Lotor huffed, pressing a hand in front of his mouth. “That… does explain some things.” Lotor stared at the screen with an inscrutable expression. 

“Take your time,” Lance babbled. “I totally understand being startled to find out just how awesome I am. I mean, who wouldn’t be? A paladin of Voltron is a pretty big deal.”

Lotor huffed a laugh. “Well, if you’re being honest, I suppose I should come clean too.” Lotor settled back into his gigantic plush chair and sighed. “I am a prince of the Galra empire.”

Lance choked on air. “A prince?” he wheezed. “I thought— I mean I knew you were rich, but… a _prince_?” Lance paused in horrified bafflement. “Does that mean that Zarkon is your dad?”

“Well, that’s not the worst reaction I could have gotten,” Lotor said lightly. “And yes, Emperor Zarkon is my father.” He paused. “We weren’t… close. Ruling an empire is a time-consuming endeavor, even for one so practiced as my father.” He stroked the soft skin of his cheek absently. “I was hardly the ideal Galra soldier, which likely contributed to our distance.” 

“That’s…” Lance trailed off. On the one hand, this was Zarkon they were talking about. On the other hand, this was Lotor’s father. Lotor laughed softly.

“Don’t worry yourself so, Lance. I know full well the kind of man my father was.” Lotor smiled into the camera. “I, like the rest of the universe, am better off without him.” There was an almost wicked edge to Lotor’s smile now. “I suppose I have you to thank for my father’s deposition, now.”

“You’re welcome,” Lance said with the bravado of someone completely out of his depth. 

“I’ll have to send this sugar as a token of my gratitude to you,” Lotor said, jotting something down on a note and then affixing it to the lid of the sugar. 

“How do you plan to get it to me?” Lance said, gratefully grabbing onto the change of topic. 

Lotor hummed gleefully. “You’ll just have to wait and find out,” he purred. 

Lance eyed Lotor skeptically. “How likely is it for this plan to include murder?”

“Lance,” Lotor gasped, “you know me!” Lance knew Lotor, sure, but he wasn’t sure that was the same thing as knowing Prince Lotor, Zarkon’s son. 

“More importantly,” Lotor added upon seeing Lance’s expression, “I know you. I’m just sending it with one of my personal guard to the outer districts.” Lotor waved his hand dismissively. “No one will think it odd if I look out for Voltron, not after all my father put into stopping you and how that turned out.”

“Yeah, but _my team_ will think it’s weird if a loyal Galra soldier gives me sugar,” Lance hissed. 

“Please,” Lotor laughed, “give my men a bit more credit than that. He’ll be subtle, I promise.” Lotor paused with a slight wince. “To give you fair warning, he may in fact be too subtle. If a soldier with a purple collar on his armor seems like he’s trying to murder you, he’s just taking his mission to not seem suspicious a tad too seriously. He will not actually go so far as to kill you.”

“That’s… good?” Lance was definitely a big fan of people not murdering him. Not being murdered was in fact one of his favorite pastimes. The trying to murder him part was less promising.

“I’m sure that you’ll be able to handle him” Lotor purred. “You are the Blue Paladin, after all.”

“Right, of course I can!” said Lance with a neon bright smile stretched wide on his face. 

“Excellent!” Lotor clapped his hands together and grinned. “Now that that’s settled—” Lotor was cut off by a loud beeping noise. “Oh, another assassin.” Lotor groaned and pushed out of his chair. “I’ve got to go deal with this, but I’ll be back soon,” he sighed. 

“Wait, assassin?” Lance grabbed his Corredev tightly and leaned towards the screen. “Lotor—!” The screen went dark. Lance stared at his Corredev blankly.

“What the fuck,” Lance hissed at the screen. Lotor was being attacked by assassins. Lotor was Zarkon’s son. Assassins might have legitimate reasons to attack Lotor. 

“What the fuck?” Lance asked his ceiling plaintively as he flopped back onto his bed. Zarkon had a son—and wow, there wasn’t enough brain bleach to deal with that thought—and that son was his friend. 

The sins of the father weren’t the sins of the son, not to Lance, but still. _Zarkon’s son. Zarkon’s son is sending me sugar via his personal guard_. Lance couldn’t help but giggle about the absurdity of it all. 

Lance let the last of his laughter fade as he stared up into grey expanse of his ceiling. So he definitely couldn’t tell everyone about Lotor now. He could definitely see that conversation going well. He could just stroll up to Allura and go ‘Hey Allura, you know that guy that killed your entire planet? The one we spent all that time fighting? Yeah, Zarkon, that’s the one. Well, I’m corre calling his son on a regular basis, so… thought you should know’ and then she’d strangle him and Hunk would weep over his corpse before giving him a badass space funeral. 

He could, theoretically, just tell Hunk or Pidge about Lotor. Pidge certainly proved great at keeping secrets, and Hunk had been his co-conspirator in basically everything at the Garrison, but on the other hand, Zarkon’s son. Killing Zarkon was the reason Shiro was gone, so consorting with his son could be… Yeah, maybe he’d just keep this to himself a bit longer.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to write~ I'm planning on moving to a new country for a new job in June, so I've been doing a lot of stuff irl haha

Lance heard Hunk calling his name from down the hall. _What on Earth_? Lance doubled checked that the Corredev was out of sight before opening his door. Hunk skidded to a stop in front of Lance’s door with a grin fit to split his face.

“Lance!” Hunk cheered, “Pidge found Shiro! We can get him back!”

“What?” Lance darted out to grab Hunk’s shoulder. “Are you serious? Oh man, that’s fantastic!” He flung himself into Hunk’s arms and whooped with delight. 

“I know!” Hunk hugged Lance, and wow, he’d almost forgotten just how amazing Hunk’s hugs were. They should definitely do that more often. 

“Where is he?” Lance demanded excitedly. 

“That’s… where things get a little bit complicated.” Hunk wilted in Lance’s arms.

Lance pulled Hunk closer. “Hunk, buddy, that’s not really reassuring. Is he okay?” 

“We don’t know.” Hunk took a fortifying breath. “When Zarkon exploded into all that purple lightning and Voltron broke apart, well... Voltron wasn’t the only thing that broke. We kind of broke space a little bit, and Shiro fell through.”

“What? How did—?” Lance pushed back from Hunk, face scrunched up with confusion. _Why bother asking?_ , whispered a little voice in the back of his head. _It’s not like you could understand._. Hunk was watching him with careful concern. “Nevermind. How do we get Shiro back from wherever he fell to?”

“That’s what we’re talking about right now! We gotta get back,” Hunk said, already striding down the hall. 

Lance did a little spinning dance and then careened down the hallway after Hunk. “We’re gonna get Shiro back!” he cheered, flinging his arms wide. 

“Yeah we are!” Hunk perked up and then picked up speed. Lance laughed lightly and fell into a half-jog beside him. The labyrinth of glowing halls had grown familiar to them by now, and it took little time to dash from Lance’s room to the common room. 

“Pidge!” Lance shrieked as he bolted in. “You little genius, you found Shiro?”

“Yeah, I did,” Pidge said, beaming proudly. “Slav and Coran helped me find a way to track Shiro’s quintessence using his bond with the Black Lion.” Pidge held up a glowing contraption made of mishmash of little parts that Lance couldn’t begin to identify. “It’s not quite done yet, but pretty soon we should be able to use Voltron to get to Shiro.”

“Hold up there, did you say Voltron?” yelled Lance, gesticulating wildly. “Can’t we, yanno, not form that without the head, as in Shiro?” Keith frowned contemplatively on the couch. 

“I could pilot the Black Lion, as it is linked to my life force,” Allura said with the confidence of a woman who’d spent a lot of time thinking up backup plans for the first couple months she’d known the paladins.

“You have to be here to pilot the castle.” Coran frowned. “We haven’t built up enough residual energy to have anyone else create a wormhole, and we don’t know what we’ll find when we get to Shiro.” 

Allura huffed; her brows knitted together. “We can’t just leave him there.”

“I could pilot the Black Lion,” Keith volunteered, determination written in the tense lines of his body. “I’ve done it before,” he paused as everyone stared at him shocked, “but then Red…”

Allura looked at Coran speculatively, then turned her gaze towards Lance. “The Blue Lion is the most accepting of new pilots,” she said with the air of someone recalling a long ago lesson. Lance stiffened uncomfortably. That… did not sound promising. 

“If Lance can work together with the Red Lion, it’s quite likely the Blue Lion would accept Coran as its pilot.” 

_Would Blue accept anyone as her pilot then?_ Lance wondered as a knot of tension settled at the base of his skull. 

“Of course I can pilot the Red Lion,” Lance boasted with his chest puffed up. His pride bristled at the implication that he couldn’t do what Keith could, especially since it might be true. “Though I mean, if the Black Lion let _Keith_ pilot it, clearly I’d have no problems taking the lead here.”

“Lance,” Allura said with an edge of sharpness in her voice underneath a veneer of exasperation, “can you please be serious?”

Lance thought, just for a split second, about lashing back at her and making her understand just how serious he was about Shiro’s disappearance, but he’d seen the tension in her shoulders and the pallor of her skin. She didn’t need this. ( _She doesn’t need_ you.)

“Allura,” he gasped, throwing a hand against his chest, “I’m hurt! When am I not serious?” He slouched with dramatic sorrow before carefully watching the tension in her shoulders ratchet up. _Well, that backfired_. He’d hoped to lighten the mood, but apparently joking after someone asked you to be serious wasn’t mood-lifting. What a shocking discovery. He sighed, quietly and out of Allura’s line of sight, of course. 

“Hey,” Hunk whispered, so close that Lance could feel his warmth. “You’d be great as the head of Voltron. You’re already mouthiest, and it’s not that far from headiest.” Lance laughed, loud and bright, and then slightly more quietly once Allura looked his way. 

“Headiest, huh?” Lance leaned against Hunk. “So you’re saying if I get everybody drunk on my friendship, I’d be the best choice for the head of Voltron?”

“Yeah, of course.” Hunk said casually. “I followed you everywhere on Earth, and I’d do it in space too.” Hunk sighed sadly. “But unfortunately for you, I’ve had dibs on being the next head since we had just started trying to form Voltron..”

Lance knew he could count on Hunk, at least. He smiled brightly at Hunk and gently nudged his elbow into Hunk’s stomach. “So screaming ‘I’m a leg!’ counts as calling dibs on the head of Voltron now, huh?” 

“Rude,” said Hunk with a calm only slightly undercut by his aggressive tickling of a shrieking Lance.

“I give! I give!” Lance wheezed. He pressed a hand to his aching stomach and slumped against Hunk, carefully guarding his ribs from further attack. Hunk was _evil_ when it came to tickle fights, even from Lance’s very experienced perspective. 

“You’re ticklish, huh?” Pidge’s eyes had a particularly vindictive sort of gleam to them. Lance had seen that expression on his younger siblings before, and a tingle of foreboding ran down his spine. 

“No,” Lance denied with a straight face. “Not at all. Why?” He propped himself up against Hunk and watched Pidge with a mild, polite sort of interest. 

“No reason.” Pidge smiled slyly. 

Allura was smothering a fond grin against her hand. _Nice_ , Lance thought proudly. Keith was watching them with a resigned exasperation, but Keith continued to be Keith, so that was pretty normal. Keith just didn’t properly appreciate the value of destressing. At least, he didn’t appreciate it outside of beating up the gladiator. That was probably why Keith was so much better at combat. 

_If I trained more, could I lead Voltron?_ Lance watched Keith and Allura resume their conversation. He rubbed at the tension headache building at the back of his head and forced himself to let the tension flow from his neck and shoulders. _Probably have as much chance at that as I do in beating Keith as a pilot or a fighter._

Allura’s head turned towards Lance with the sort of speed that could give a human whiplash. “Lance!” She was still smiling, but there was a slightly manic edge to it now. “Follow Keith to the Red Lion’s hangar. We need to see if you can pilot her.” 

“Of course I can!” Lance tilted his head back with an arrogant smile. “The Red Lion is going to love me. Who wouldn’t?” 

Keith snorted and turned his head away. Lance felt his eyes narrow. 

“You’ve got something to say, _Keith_?” Lance hissed. 

“No,” said Keith, visibly collecting himself. “I don’t.” 

Lance watched Keith walk away, feeling a bit like the world had tilted slightly to the left when he wasn’t looking. Keith was just starting to acknowledge Lance as a rival, and now he wanted to pretend he was better than this? Better than _Lance_? Lance felt a hard knot of fear settle behind his collarbone. 

_I won’t let you_ , Lance swore to himself. _I’m just as much a part of Voltron as you. I am!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like Hunk, I think Lance is a good leader and if he were actually piloting the Black Lion in season 3 I would be so psyched. Keith could be a good leader someday, but I don't quite think he's there yet, so thanks to that and Lance's insecurities, we're headed for a trainwreck. Either next chapter or the one after we'll be to the sugar mission, which I hope you'll enjoy!


End file.
